2017 St. Martin de Porres Award Recipient

In collaboration with the Diocese of Manchester, The New Hampshire Guild of Catholic Healthcare Professionals sponsors the Saint Martin de Porres Award to recognize Catholic healthcare professionals who exhibit the virtues of Catholic healthcare. Saint Martin de Porres was a professed brother in the Dominican order who lived from 1579 – 1639. He led a life that was dedicated to helping the sick and the poor. Saint Martin’s patronage includes public health and social justice.
Steve Paradis, is a most worthy recipient of the 2017 Saint Martin de Porres Award. Steve graduated from Saint Anselm College in 1975 with a degree in Economics & Business. After 19 years in the banking market he felt called to medicine. Responding to God’s call, Steve returned to Saint Anselm College to accept the challenge of pursuing a nursing career. During his first year of nursing school the Diocese of Manchester opened the Bishop Peterson Residence for clergy where Steve worked as a nursing assistant until his graduation from nursing school. He was called to oncology nursing and currently works at the Elliot Hospital as a Radiation Oncology Nurse in the Elliot Regional Cancer Center.
Steve is a dedicated member of the Parish of the Transfiguration in Manchester and serves on many committees. Steve’s dedication to his religious beliefs and works of corporal mercy are always evident. He was a volunteer for the Parish Nurse Program at Saint Edmund’s Parish, he was involved in Adult Faith Formation, the Food Pantry Committee and volunteered to serve the homeless at the New Horizon’s shelter. As a Eucharist Minister, Steve has literally brought the healing touch of Jesus to bedridden and homebound souls who hunger for communion.
Personal testimony from a patient being treated for thyroid cancer gives an account of how Steve was a calming and reassuring presence when she received radioactive iodine to treat her cancer. She reports how isolating the treatment felt because of the requirement to be physically removed from other people for a period of time. She said somehow Steve intuitively knew how much she needed a hug and opened his arms to embrace her. She said it was a gesture of selflessness and love she will never forget.
Steve’s faith driven role as a Registered Nurse has touched the lives of hundreds of patients who face very challenging and in many cases life ending illnesses. He lives the Gospel message and continues to advance the healing ministry of Our Lord Jesus Christ every day. Steve is an unsung hero whose quiet and faithful dedication to God, family, friends and patients
is making a difference in a world so desperate for love.
Saint Pope John Paul II said of those who work in the service of life that “the Gospel of life inspires them to lift their feeling of good will towards other to the heights of Christ’s charity; to renew every day, amid hard work and weariness, their awareness of the dignity of every person to search out people‘s needs and, when necessary, to set out on new paths where needs are greater but care and support weaker” (
the Gospel of Life, n. 90). No more appropriate words describe Steve’s life and work, and for his life and work, we are truly grateful.
Bishop Libacsi will now present the 2017 Saint Martin de Porres Award to professional nurse Steve E. Paradis.